Investigations into the reactivity of organoelement gallium - Subhalides syntheses of bifunctional digallium carboxylate iodides possessing bridged Ga-Ga bonds and terminal iodine atoms

The organoelement subhalide R2Ga2I2 (1) [R = C(SiMe3)(3)] reacted with one equivalent of different lithium carboxylates LiO2CR [R = -C6H5, -4-Me3C-C6H4, -4-BrC6H4, -3,5Me(2)C(6)H(3), -CMe3] by the selective replacement of only one iodine atom. Bifunctional digallium compounds were formed, in which one chelating carboxylato group bridges the Ga-Ga bonds. Thus, both gallium atoms are coordinated to one carbon atom of the tris(trimethylsilyl)methyl groups and one oxygen atom of the chelating ligand, while only one is further attached to a terminal iodine atom. This asymmetric substitution pattern results in different coordination numbers of three and four for the gallium atoms. (c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.